


Winter warmth

by TurquoiseMapleSyrup



Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Christmas, Domestic Fluff, Gen, Guardian Harry, Harry is so soft for Eggsy, Kid Eggsy, Kinda, Parent-Child Relationship, Sweet, some feelings here and there beacause it happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:55:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28227984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TurquoiseMapleSyrup/pseuds/TurquoiseMapleSyrup
Summary: Eggsy wasn’t used anymore to being woken up by something different than Harry calling his name out loud at ungodly hours and the bone-chilling cold coming from the windows of his bedroom that Harry always opened to try to force him out of bed.But today there was no school. It was the Christmas holidays, Eggsy’s brain slowly started to realize, taking in the warm late morning light coming from the closed windows. Harry was sat on the edge of the bed, looking down at him.---Harry and eight-year-old Eggsy go shopping during the Christmas holidays. That's it, that's the fic.
Relationships: Harry Hart | Galahad & Gary "Eggsy" Unwin
Comments: 12
Kudos: 18





	Winter warmth

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first fic in this fandom, and I'm so sorry this is not Brit-picked and probably contains mistakes, since English is not my first language. I hope someone will give it a try anyway.  
> I guess this AU would need some more explaining but I just felt like writing some overly sweet Christmas fluff.  
> I hope you'll enjoy!

Eggsy wasn’t used anymore to being woken up by something different than Harry calling his name out loud at ungodly hours and the bone-chilling cold coming from the windows of his bedroom that Harry always opened to try to force him out of bed.

But today there was no school. It was the Christmas holidays, Eggsy’s brain slowly started to realize, taking in the warm late morning light coming from the closed windows. Harry was sat on the edge of the bed, looking down at him.

“Good morning. Are you getting out of bed at some point?”, he asked Eggsy with an amused smile. “I would suggest you to, since we are already pretty late and I am afraid quite a large amount of people may have had the same idea to go shopping this morning”.

Oh, right. Harry had managed to stay home from work, and they had decided to go out and complete their Christmas shopping. They were missing Merlin’s and mum’s presents. Eggsy had been so excited to discover that Harry planned to help him getting a proper gift for his mum. He remembered faintly the sneaky complicity with his dad when they organized and bought gifts to his mum, but after his death he had never been able to buy her anything again. He and Dean had never really been partners in crime, not even in the beginning when Dean was still nice, and Eggsy didn’t have enough money to buy anything. Just once he had managed to buy her some flowers, saving the little money his mum sometimes gave him for sweets. But this year Harry was really going to help him buy a real beautiful present for her and Eggsy felt like jumping out of his skin from happiness.

“Well young man, there’s breakfast waiting for you down in the kitchen”, Harry told him ruffling his hair before getting up and heading downstairs himself.

Breakfast. That was the magic word which made Eggsy fling his legs out from under the covers and pad downstairs after Harry.

As soon as he entered the kitchen, he was hit by the smell of fried eggs, but lately he had learnt not to care, and now his stomach didn’t even turn upside down anymore, knowing there was also something sweet waiting for him. While Harry was an absolute sucker for eggs and sausages, Eggsy, quite uncharacteristically, liked his breakfast sweet, a glass of milk and whatever contained sugar really, be it a pie, a tart, a fluffy cake or scones with jam. Today on the table was the Pandoro they had bought a few days before.

Harry had insisted that Eggsy absolutely had to try the Italian Christmas classics and had dragged him in the poshest pastry shop to ever exist, if you asked Eggsy. He remembered vaguely having eaten Panettone one Christmas when there was still his dad, but he didn’t remember much of it, and anyway he was quite sure it had been nothing like the extra expensive handmade one Harry had got them in the pastry shop. They had no Pandoro though, much to Harry’s disappointment, and they had to settle for an Italian industrial one, not that it had been easy to find it either.

Eggsy was very curious about the novelty of it all and was really looking forward to try Panettone again, but he had agreed with Harry to wait for his mum to eat it. He had been absolutely thrilled to learn that the doctors would let his mum out of the rehab centre for Christmas day, so that she could spend it with Eggsy at Harry’s, and the two were trying to arrange everything to make it the best day possible. There would be Panettone, since Eggsy recalled she loved it so much that his dad had bought it for her that one time, and he had also persuaded Harry to cook the lunch themselves; Harry hadn’t found it in him to tell the boy no, with those enthusiastic glittering eyes staring up at him, even if he thought they had serious possibilities of setting the house on fire, given their cooking skills.

So, while the Panettone was currently locked in the cupboard along with their Christmas pudding, waiting for its big day, the Pandoro was being taken out of its box. Harry retrieved a small paper bag from the box and smiled at Eggsy. “Would you like to have the honor?”, he asked handing him the bag.

Eggsy shot him a confused look.

“It’s powdered sugar. You pour it inside the plastic bag with the Pandoro, close it and shake it. It has to be eaten all nicely covered”, he explained with that practiced ease of his. Eggsy eagerly reached for the paper bag and did as told.

“Wow, looks like a snow globe!”, he giggled happily, keeping on shaking it to see more of the white powder floating around.

Harry grabbed the plastic bag from his hands before he could send it flying through the kitchen, deeming the sugar spread nicely enough. He cut two generous slices for the both of them, while Eggsy retrieved the milk from the fridge. The boy also sneakily grabbed the cocoa powder box from the cupboard and started pouring it in his mug before Harry could stop him, and the man pretended not to notice, keeping on passing his sausages from the pan to his plate intently. Eggsy usually asked him for permission to drink cocoa, but he guessed he could make it slip today, it was Christmas after all. Eggsy had left the box on the table anyway, like a guilty sign, and Harry pointedly kept on ignoring it for good, picking up the plate with his own Pandoro slice.

Eggsy glanced in mild concern at Harry’s side of the table, where tea, Pandoro, eggs, sausages and fried tomatoes lied one next to the other, but he quickly focused on his side. At that point he had understood that Harry, always the perfect and composed gentleman, knew no boundaries at breakfast; he would eat with ease anything that resembled food, and probably even something that didn’t.

He tentatively ripped a small bit of Pandoro from his slice and popped it in his mouth. It was amazing, soft and airy like a cloud, and had a full buttery taste that mingled perfectly with the powdered sugar. He moaned happily around his mouthful (his mum, and Harry too, had told him multiple times not to speak while chewing), hoping it would convey his appreciation. “’s amazing”, he managed to get out once he had swallowed, before shoving his slice inside his mug and stuffing his face with the milk-soaked Pandoro that came out of it.

Harry fleetingly thought that only a few months ago he would have gone mental at the sight of his kitchen table and floor being sprinkled with extra fine powdered sugar and occasionally with droplets of milk dripping from the Pandoro slice Eggsy was wolfing down, but then and there he was just feeling warmth spreading through his chest at the sight of such a happy and comfortable Eggsy. Maybe Christmas miracles did exist, after all.

~

They managed to get out of the house in an impressive time, given the laziness the morning had started with, and off they were towards Covent Garden, fully operative.

They swam through the shops waiting for an inspiration, but Merlin was a very difficult subject, like Harry kept saying, especially after a solid fifteen years of making presents to each other, and Eggsy actually didn’t know what to get his mum; he just wanted to get her everything, or just something beautiful that would make her happy, but he didn’t have anything specific in mind and he didn’t want to make Harry spend too much, something the man tended to do way too often for him.

After some more wandering around, Eggsy saw something lighting up on Harry’s face as he took notice of a shop window that displayed some expensive-looking watches.

“Do you want to get Merlin a watch?”, Eggsy asked from his side, standing on his toes to peek at the items on display.

“I reckon he definitely is in need of one”, Harry answered with a grin Eggsy was not sure understood completely, and gently guided the boy inside the jeweller’s along him. 

Harry engaged in a complicated sounding conversation with the sales assistant about the technical features of the watches and what he was looking for and Eggsy totally lost track of what they were saying after the first thirty words. He glanced around him, taking in the fancy jewellery tastefully arranged around the shop, but remained frozen on the spot, too scared to break anything to move. As the incomprehensible conversation kept going and going, however, Eggsy started to get restless and resolved to take some tentative steps around, overly mindful of the too much glass surrounding him. We moved to look at the sparkling things, that looked much more interesting that those boring watches that looked all the same, and found himself staring at necklaces and bracelets until something caught his attention. He stared in awe.  
He had probably lost himself quite a bit, since after some time he felt Harry’s hand on his shoulder. “Found something interesting?”.

“Uh, ehm...”, Eggsy answered eloquently, glancing up at Harry and then quickly at the floor.

Harry leant over to see what Eggsy had been staring at. “Earrings? Do you think your mum would like those?”.

The shop assistant had stood aside a bit, leaving them some privacy, and Eggsy was grateful for it.

“Which ones? These ones with the bees?”, Harry tried to inquire farther at the lack of response from Eggsy.

“Yes?”, he replied shyly, eyes fixated on the glass in front of the earrings. His mum loved bees, and she always carried with her a chain with a bee-shaped pendant, which she was very fond of. It had been the last gift to her from his dad, and she treasured it lovingly. It was also one of the few things Dean hadn’t known had a connection with his dad and had thus survived the years Dean had lived in their house. Those earrings had a striking resemblance with the pendant, small, rose gold and delicately glittering. For some reason he thought they were perfect. The pendant had been the last happy Christmas gift before Dean and before everything went downhill, and these could be the first Christmas present after Dean, now that everything was starting to rise and look bright again.

“Mum’s got a pendant that looks a lot like these”, he went on chewing on his lower lip. “’t was the last gift Dad gave her”. “But there’s no need to spend so much, we can find something else”, he was quick to add, going back to glancing at the floor.

Harry had caught on that something that had passed in Eggsy’s eyes at the mention of his dad, and he felt his own throat constricting.

“That’s nonsense, Eggsy. We can surely buy them if you think your mum will like them. They’re very pretty indeed. You have very fine taste, my dear boy”.

“Are you sure?”. Eggsy was blinking up at him discretely, probably trying his best to keep his eyes from enlarging to pleading puppy size. He knew Eggsy never meant to persuade him to spend a cent more than necessary for him, quite the opposite actually, but that was such nonsense.

“Of course I am”, he answered squeezing gently Eggsy’s shoulder and offering a sweet smile.

He turned towards the salesman to inform him of their interest for the earrings and after a few more minutes they were back in the awfully crowded street with their two small packages. Eggsy had insisted to carry his mum’s himself, and was currently swinging it wildly as they walked hand in hand, but after all small earrings weren’t in any danger of suffering damage from a bit of shaking.

They kept walking some more, and Harry came up with an idea. “Do you want to make a quick trip to Regent Street?”.

He knew that that little manoeuvre was going to cost him hours, sore feet and probably a headache, but it was totally worth it to see Eggsy’s face lighting up in pure delight. Because Regent Street basically meant two things: Christmas lightings and Hamleys. 

Harry briefly thought of taking the tube, but he discarded the idea. It was a wonderful morning, the air was chilly but not too biting, and anyway he was quite sure that Eggsy didn’t even come near to feeling it, wrapped in multiple layers of clothing as he was. And also, Eggsy loved to wander in that side of the city, that was so new to him in spite of having lived in London for years, and he especially adored the Christmas lightings that even in the bright light of the day made everything look a little more magical. 

By the time they arrived to Hamleys, Eggsy was a buzzing pile of energy, jumping up and down at the prospect of the seven floors stuffed full with every kind of toy he could imagine, and plenty that he couldn’t have even imagined before seeing them.

Inside it was crowded as it could only be three days before Christmas, with kids of all ages dragging tirelessly their parents here and there around the shop. Harry sighed to himself, preparing to join them. He felt like it would have been easier for him to burst into a terrorists’ den than what he was about to do, but he had promised Eggsy a visit and it was long overdue now, after he had been such a good boy in the past few months. He was going to make Eggsy happy, wasn’t he?

They entered, Harry holding tightly Eggsy’s hand, God forbid he might lose him in that mess that was the shop, and Eggsy almost immediately started spinning around like a compass needle in a too intense magnetic field, totally in awe and seemingly wanting to go everywhere at once.

Harry let himself be dragged around by Eggsy, and as they ascended in the building they passed by every imaginable kind of stuffed animals, from condors to kangaroos to white whales, colourful painting sets, dolls, huge Lego sets, model cars and trains and planes, puzzles, superhero masks and costumes, every sort of board games and books, water guns, Frisbees and skates. There were even some guys trying out the newest and most spectacular toys for everyone to see, making a show for children and parents. Because indeed, not that Harry was ever going to admit it to living soul, he was really not indifferent to the charm of it all, had it been the Christmas atmosphere, the joyous music or Eggsy’s infectious enthusiasm.

Eggsy, speaking of which, had wanted nothing and seemed very content with just running among the shelves and looking around, but Harry had not missed Eggsy’s huge green eyes going star-shaped over a couple of things. He was a spy for a reason. First of all that remote-controlled helicopter model that looked as accurate and well-made as it costed, too much for Eggsy to even consider, and then he had also ogled a little chemist’s set, complete with test tubes, protective glasses and coloured powders that looked perfect to blow up his house. Harry made a mental list of it all. The two toys would join the new videogame Eggsy kept babbling about, which was currently tucked in Harry’s closet, together with the nicely wrapped packet Michelle had slipped him during their last visit, waiting to be _magically_ transferred under the tree on Christmas night. He just had to get rid of Eggsy in the next few days and sneak back to the shop, and he reckoned that Merlin owing him a couple of favours would come in handy. Or maybe he could bribe the doctors into allowing Eggsy another visit to Michelle before Christmas, he’ll see about that.

Finally, after Harry-didn’t-want-to-check-how-many-hours, they were out again, and the chill air on their faces was almost welcomed after the slightly excessive warmth of the shop. After all the running up and down after Eggsy, Harry was feeling faintly out of breath (had that really been worse than taking down six men at once?) and kind of dizzy with... was that happiness? Anyway, the cold air gave him back his composure and he started leading the way home, Eggsy still bouncing up and down excitedly by his side, blabbering endlessly about what they had just seen.

~

Finally back home, as soon as they settled the newly bought gifts on the kitchen counter along with the Chinese takeaway they had grabbed on their way, Eggsy flung himself at Harry and hugged him.

“Thanks, ‘Arry”, he said gazing up at him, his chin pressed in Harry’s stomach. The man looked down at him softly and crouched down to hug him back, squeezing his small body tightly in his arms. “You are very welcome, sweetheart”. 

They both lingered in the hug some more, until Eggsy disentangled himself from Harry’s arms and hastily reached for the bags with food. With a last soft look to the boy, Harry went to help him, and in no time they had set the table and swallowed all of their dumplings, prawns and cashews rice and fried chicken.

Resting back in his chair, Harry appreciated the moment of silence that followed the meal, thinking the food had finally calmed down his hyperactive mate, but Eggsy clearly had other ideas.

“Harry, we have to wrap up the other gifts!” he exclaimed hopping down his chair like he hadn’t just eaten half his weight in chicken. “Mum’s and Merlin’s are all wrapped nice, but the others ‘re still in the boxes! Do you have wrapping paper?”. He looked at him with such an open and happy expression that Harry thought he was not wagging his tail only because he didn’t have one.

“Well, I think I should have something. Let’s look around”. He stood up to head for the living room, with Eggsy right behind him like a shadow, and kneeled down on the carpet next to the bookcase to start rummaging through one of the lower drawers, that was supposed to contain his stationery supplies. Eggsy immediately kneeled beside him, watching inside the drawer with curiosity and waiting eagerly for him to produce the paper out of it. 

“I’m afraid this is the only thing we have for the purpose”, Harry said after some time, holding up some sheets of brown paper. He was on the verge of offering to go out again to buy some more cheerful-looking one at the small sad pout that appeared on Eggsy’s face at the news, but he had an idea before he could do so. “But maybe... we can decorate it?”, he tried. 

Much to his relief, Eggsy beamed at the proposal. “Yes that’s cool! I go pick my school things”, he shouted already bolting up the stairs, in the direction of his room, and a few minutes later he came back running down at the same speed that had Harry worried he may break his neck, with his arms stuffed with colourful items.

“This ‘s all the stuff that’s left from when we did our creative work for Christmas at school”, he explained while carefully putting down his set of crayons and markers and various cuts of multicoloured cardboard. In a blink of an eye, he had a gift wrapping station set on Harry’s living room floor, next to the Christmas tree.

“Then, gentleman, what are we going to do? I’m at your complete service”, he told Eggsy with a small bow. 

The boy looked intently at all the items in display, kneeled on the floor next to them, and then lifted his head like he had found a resolution. 

“We can do what Jamal did with his Christmas cards. He’s made little reindeers. We can wrap the boxes in the brown paper and then we draw the eyes and the red nose. And then the antlers”. He flipped through the cardboards and retrieved triumphantly a brown one. “With this!”.

“Very well. What can I do?”, Harry asked Eggsy settling on the carpet next to him.

The boy looked at him thoughtfully. “You draw the antlers. I’m no good at drawin’”, he answered passing him a pencil and the brown cardboard, which Harry accepted with no heart to tell him he was probably even worse. “I’ll do my best”.

Eggsy seriously nodded his approval at his best intentions and then started to unfold the paper, staring at the box that contained Percival’s present, thinking of the best way to wrap it up. He grabbed his small scotch tape roll from his pencil case and set to work with a look of utter concentration on his face.

Harry set to work, too, and sighed.

They had left a mess of empty and greasy boxes in the kitchen, there were colours and paper scattered all over his living room and he was sitting on the floor drawing and cutting reindeer antlers to be put on Christmas packets. He would have never, ever been able to predict such a thing for himself, but glancing up at Eggsy lying on the floor next to him, he felt like that was the warmest Christmas he had experienced in years.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you are having serene Christmas holidays.


End file.
